Various forms of earth moving equipment include apparatus for tilling or “ripping” the terrain, thus enabling a variety of benefits. While initially developed for agriculture, ripping is often used today as an alternative to drilling and blasting with explosives.
Modern tractors of the 1950s and 1960s advanced ripping capabilities by mounting the ripper to the rear of the machine. This design, coupled with advanced hydraulic systems, more machine weight, and greater horsepower, greatly improved ripping performance and efficiency. These advances in performance were welcomed as environmental factors began to limit or restrict conventional blasting techniques. Urban encroachment, safety, and pollution concerns all have placed much greater demands on customers' ability to use drill and blasting as a way to remove material. In the mining world, concern for mixing materials, process improvements (leach pads), and similar safety and environmental considerations likewise increased interest in ripping. As the interest in ripping has grown, so has the need for ripping equipment that meets the needs of a user.
One example of recent developments in ripping equipment is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,535, entitled “Mounting arrangement for a ripper shank.” This patent discloses a ripper shank that is mounted in a channel defined in a ripper frame. A pair of piston members is mounted in the frame on opposite sides of the ripper shank. The piston members are urged into engagement with the ripper shank by a biasing mechanism that is positioned between the frame and the piston members. While an equipment operator is provided with an ability to perform remote adjustments, adjusting the ripper requires resting the ripper on the ground and adjusting the frame relative to the ripper. Thus, this assembly is generally complicated and uses a considerable number of parts.
Thus, there is a need for an improved ripping apparatus.